January 05, 2010

Goals for 2010

When I was working in the corporate world I followed the rule that goals needed to be specific, measurable and have dates associated with them. Now that I am working for myself my goals are much more general and vague and I am good with that! So this year I want to.....

Spend more time with friends and family - This is number one and is self explanatory.

Blog more - December is usually a bad blogging month for me. This past month I just put up 2 posts. I guess there was too much other stuff going on. I posted 80 times in 2009. I think I can do better that that in 2010. I was recently invited to cross post at ThisisReno.com which is exciting and inspiring.

Hiking / snowshoeing more - I haven't been out hiking in several weeks or out snowshoeing either. I need to get going!

Podcast more - I think I averaged about one podcast a month last year. I also want to submit my podcast to iTunes this year.

Improve my Spanish - I've been studying Spanish with Duke's help for a while now. If I work on it every day I will get better. I'm listening to Podcasts like Show Time Spanish, using Mango languages from the library website, working my way through a grammar text book, trying to read Spanish books and magazines, talking to Duke (he is fluent in Spanish), and anything else I can think of. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Family History - Keep digging into my family history. Start my family history blog, Contact distant relatives, Find primary sources.

Travel - I'm planning a trip with friend to the area around St George, Utah. Duke and I plan to do more exploring on the back roads of Nevada, We'll make lots of shorter trips and for anything beyond that we shall see. The goal though is to travel frequently.

I keep thinking I'd like to start a distributed History Book Club. In other words a group of us would get together via Skype or using something like Webex and discuss history and a book we have read. Right now this is just a germ of an idea but I'd be interested in any thoughts people might have about the idea.

Start playing the piano again - This will require me to get a piano.

Learn more about the geology of Nevada and the rocks I find when we are exploring. Nevada is a wonderful place to be a rock hound. Knowing nothing about geology Duke and I have still collected some great rocks in our exploring.

Become a better Amateur Historian - maybe join the historical society, go to the historical places I am studying about, write about what I am learning. Do some history podcast interviews.

Write more about history. My friend Beverley Bryant tells her grandson stories form History. I like the idea.